Tag Archives: Natasha Helmick

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Yes, it’s premature to speculate on the tragic death of football great Junior Seau, one of the heroes of my boys, all of whom were born in San Diego and who love Seau’s first team, the Chargers. But stories are already buzzing about a possible connection with the concussions Seau sustained during his professional football career.

Writing for the Los Angeles Times here , Amina Khan writes: “Former NFL star Junior Seau’s death by apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound follows a pattern of suicides by other high-profile football players who suffered from long-term effects of repeated brain injury.” Khan cites the sad fates of Andre Waters of the Philadelphia Eagles, Terry Long of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Bears player Dave Duerson and elaborates on the growing awareness of the long-term effects of repeated brain trauma.

Again, we don’t know if there’s a connection. But it should make us all think twice about the effects of concussions on kids who butt heads in football, soccer and other sports. You can read my column about concussions and kids and the story of Natasha Helmick of Allen who suffered five concussions and is now determined to try to protect other kids from them here.

PHOTOS: (Top) Junior Seau (Bottom) Allen residents Zachary Helmick (left), 15 and his sister Natasha, 19, in front of a wall in their home of some of the team photographs and awards they have collected over the years. Zachary is a member of the Allen High School soccer team, and Natasha recently had to stop playing soccer for Texas State University due to multiple concussions.

USA Today has a heartbreaking story about a family whose 15-year-old, Matt Gfeller, 15, died two days after he sustained a concussion resulting from a play in which he and an opposing player butted helmets in his first varsity high school football game here. While that is the absolute worst thing that can happen, it made me think of all the damage concussions can do to kids’ brains short of that ultimate tragedy.

A disturbing study from researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in December suggests that players who haven’t had concussions but who have headed the ball in soccer “more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information,” according to this popular New York Times story here.

Experts in the story recommend that kids younger than 12 shouldn’t be heading at all. Older children should limit how often they head and repeated heading drills are probably a bad idea. And what about football, where kids routinely block each other helmet to helmet as the child did in the USA Today story?

I so appreciate Natasha Helmick, a star soccer player from Allen who experienced multiple concussions heading, for talking to me about her mission to rpotect others from the longterm brain damage that can result from failing to treat concussions immediately and thoroughly. You can read about that here. But is there more we can or should do to prevent concussions? Are there certain standard moves in sports, such as helmet to helmet collisions in football or heading in soccer that we should reconsider? What do you think?

PHOTO: Allen residents Zachary Helmick (left), 15 and his sister Natasha, 19, in front of a wall in their home of some of the team photographs and awards they have collected over the years. Zachary is a member of the Allen High School soccer team, and Natasha had to stop playing soccer for Texas State University due to multiple concussions. Photo by DMN Special Contributor Stewart F. House

In March, I wrote about Natasha Helmick, a star soccer player from Allen who experienced multiple concussions heading, and how she has taken it as her mission to protect others from the longterm brain damage that can result from failing to treat concussions immediately and thoroughly. You can read about that here.

Now, a new disturbing study from researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York has emerged that suggests that players who haven’t had concussions but who have headed the ball “more than about 1,100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information,” according to this popular New York Times story here.

Experts in the story recommend that kids younger than 12 shouldn’t be heading at all. Older children should limit how often they head and repeated heading drills are probably a bad idea. How does this affect the way you feel about your child playing soccer? Is this something that parents should be talking with coaches about?

PHOTO: Allen residents Zachary Helmick (left), 15 and his sister Natasha, 19, in front of a wall in their home of some of the team photographs and awards they have collected over the years. Zachary is a member of the Allen High School soccer team, and Natasha had to stop playing soccer for Texas State University due to multiple concussions. Photo by DMN Special Contributor Stewart F. House